When I first watched Pluribus episode 4, I thought the papers Manousos had on his desk in front of his HAM radio were storage-office-related forms. But after taking a closer look and doing some digging on worldradiohistory.com, I found a document that's very similar to the one used in the show :
(Full-sized pdf here)
"Thousands of tiny experimental stations through-out the world operated by « amateurs, » offer opportunities for tuning-in real short-wave thrills."
It turns out it’s actually a short-wave station list in English, Spanish and French, with names of countries, cities, callsigns, frequencies, etc... Talking about how to tune in to radios all around the globe, it could hint at Manousos’s desire for human connection, but it also evokes the way Hive members communicate with each other throughout the world :
CAROL : It is… the loneliest sound in the world.
*Train horn blowing*
CAROL : How do you do that?
ZOSIA : Something to do with the body’s electromagnetic field. Our natural electric charge, so to speak. You have one too, just unused.
CAROL : So… like radio?
ZOSIA : Sort of. But radio transmission is like talking. It’s conscious. Our communication is unconscious. Homeostatic. Like breathing.
What I find particularly interesting about this paper is that… it’s actually from the 40's ! If we look close enough at some screenshots and do some inferring, we can see that in the column near the right edge, Vietnam is still called « Fr[ench]. Indo china » (State of Vietnam from 7/1/1949 according to pg 297 of the Shortwave Listener's Handbook), and Ho Chi Minh city is still called « Saigon ».
The station list from 1940 linked in this post is not a 100% match with the one seen in the show, but is likely a different version with slight variations, maybe from another year. A similar version from 1945 can be found on Ebay.
How did Manousos end up with a paper from the 40’s ? Or was it only used by the show creators because it included a Spanish translation, and is not supposed to be this old in canon?
Even older than his Maid of Honor kitchen alarm from the 60’s, this document might be the most vintage of his possessions yet. Adding to the list of other antiquated objects he owns, along with his old car, his watch from 1975, and his Kenwood TS 940S HAM radio.
Thank you so much for this bit of info! I never would have figured out what that was. I intially assumed it was some kind of form for his business.
I think him surrounding himself with old stuff is deliberate.
It may be that he's the type of guy who refuses to throw old stuff away because he finds it 'wasteful.' But it's probably also a special interest of his, and he has a fondness for analogue things. Even his car is from the 60s, which would have been before he was born. He has three radios. The small one he took with him on the road, the big Ham Radio in his office and the one next to his bed.
I have a feeling he sees all these things as friends because he's so isolated from people.
Yes, I was wondering what to make of his « collecting retro objects » pattern, and these are interesting new angles !
At first, I wondered if it was maybe symbolically tied to him being so against the Joining, and was meant to evoke to the viewer that he was adverse to change. Or, if maybe all these old objects used to belong to one person and he couldn’t bring himself to throw them away after they disappeared. Or maybe him surrounding himself with objects holding memories from the past parallels the way the Hive tries to appeals to Carol’s nostalgia by recalling old souvenirs ?
"Remember your trip to The Inn at Little Washington, fall of 1998? They served that pepper bacon you still talk about. We flew it in for you. And your favorite crispy brioche from Les Crayères."
Pluribus episode 2.
"It’s the exact meal you had at that B and B you stayed at in Provincetown. 2012? Remember? You were there to see the Indigo Girls. You were very complimentary of the chef that morning. It really stuck with her."
Pluribus episode 3.
"CAROL : This place. This place… was my escape. I was devastated when it… it… Wait, it burned down. You rebuilt it? From… Wait. From nothing? From an empty lot?
ZOSIA : We did.
CAROL : God, I miss those days. Working all night, so I could write all morning, and then… I mean, those were the best days."
Pluribus episode 8.
What you said about his isolation also reminds me that there’s also this theme of abandonment relevant to his character and makes me think about what Carlos Manuel Vesga said about his backstory :
Migrating means leaving stuff behind and losing stuff, so I think that probably makes Manousos somebody who knows about loss, who knows about strife and hardship, and so this time around, he says, “Hell no. Not again. I know about severing my roots somewhere and losing my world.”
Is it because he suffered loss when he left Colombia and had to leave stuff behind, that he now doesn’t want lose anything else by separating from objects from the past ?
I also guess that him continuing to use all this old technology means he knows how to maintain it and repair it as well (which would fit with the tools we see in the bedroom in his house), because you’d think it'd break down with the years.
Also, I think he may actually have up to 5 radios! If we brighten a screenshot of the desk/drawer where he kept his maps, we see that there’s also one that’s been taken apart. And I think that what looks like a walky-talky near his HAM radio is actually a Motorola MT1000 handheld radio ! Looks like it’s a HAM radio amateur thing to have handheld ones as well ?
When I first watched Pluribus episode 4, I thought the papers Manousos had on his desk in front of his HAM radio were storage-office-related forms. But after taking a closer look and doing some digging on worldradiohistory.com, I found a document that's very similar to the one used in the show :
(Full-sized pdf here)
"Thousands of tiny experimental stations through-out the world operated by « amateurs, » offer opportunities for tuning-in real short-wave thrills."
It turns out it’s actually a short-wave station list in English, Spanish and French, with names of countries, cities, callsigns, frequencies, etc... Talking about how to tune in to radios all around the globe, it could hint at Manousos’s desire for human connection, but it also evokes the way Hive members communicate with each other throughout the world :
CAROL : It is… the loneliest sound in the world.
*Train horn blowing*
CAROL : How do you do that?
ZOSIA : Something to do with the body’s electromagnetic field. Our natural electric charge, so to speak. You have one too, just unused.
CAROL : So… like radio?
ZOSIA : Sort of. But radio transmission is like talking. It’s conscious. Our communication is unconscious. Homeostatic. Like breathing.
What I find particularly interesting about this paper is that… it’s actually from the 40's ! If we look close enough at some screenshots and do some inferring, we can see that in the column near the right edge, Vietnam is still called « Fr[ench]. Indo china » (State of Vietnam from 7/1/1949 according to pg 297 of the Shortwave Listener's Handbook), and Ho Chi Minh city is still called « Saigon ».
The station list from 1940 linked in this post is not a 100% match with the one seen in the show, but is likely a different version with slight variations, maybe from another year. A similar version from 1945 can be found on Ebay.
How did Manousos end up with a paper from the 40’s ? Or was it only used by the show creators because it included a Spanish translation, and is not supposed to be this old in canon?
Even older than his Maid of Honor kitchen alarm from the 60’s, this document might be the most vintage of his possessions yet. Adding to the list of other antiquated objects he owns, along with his old car, his watch from 1975, and his Kenwood TS 940S HAM radio.
deltarune begins by discarding the appearance and name you choose, then immediately proceeds to show the protagonist being called the name their mother likely chose for them. at school, they encounter susie, an outcast who's treated as a deadly monster (even by her teacher) despite the fact that she never follows through on her violent threats. kris and susie are then forced by their teacher to go into the closet, a dark place whose residents are oppressed by wider society. there, they meet ralsei, who initially covers his entire face and body with a cloak and tells them with an air of resignation that he's been waiting his entire life to meet them so he can fulfill the role of the prince of darkness that's been forced upon him. it's difficult to read it as anything other than a transfem allegory, and I struggle to imagine the kind of cognitive dissonance it would require to understand it as anything else
When I was watching the Pluribus season 1 finale, my immediate reaction to the big reveal was "That doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about stem cells to dispute it". Turned out, I was not the only one confused: in the many Reddit discussions I found at the time nobody could agree on a coherent interpretation other than "it's just artistic license, don't worry about it". But these discussions did give me some interesting terms and links, and I used them as a jumping-off point to learn more about this topic and try to form my own opinions. Now I finally feel somewhat ready to talk about it, and I have an interpretation that makes sense to me.
As I was writing this post, I discovered that in the meantime, an actual stem cell scientist had done an AMA on the Pluribus subreddit. So, if you're reading my post because you're interested in the science in this show, I would recommend you to go read his answers first and foremost. My own post below is written from a perspective of a curious layperson, and is entirely amateurish and subjective; please keep that in mind if you decide to click the readmore.
Disclaimer 1: I am not a biologist. Pretty much everything I know about stem cells I have learned by reading articles in my free time. I don't have formal education or work experience in any of the STEM fields.
Disclaimer 2: I know it's a TV show with an extremely fantastical premise, and scientific accuracy is nowhere near its main goals. However, the writers could have left the technical details entirely vague or invented their own terms and futuristic technologies — but instead, they opted for keeping the story grounded by mentioning real-life science. To me, that sounds like an invitation to play along, try to find the guns on the wall that might fire in future episodes, and maybe learn something about the real world while I'm at it — a uniquely fun side of sci-fi as opposed to any other genre. So I'll try to provide my interpretation while keeping in mind that any of it could be rendered irrelevant depending on the needs of the narrative.
The canon
Let's start by recapping the specific lines used on the show, because, as we know, the hive is all about the precise wording and the hidden implications.
We hear about the stem cells for the first time not from the hive, but from Koumba. Note that he is relaying the information in his own words, according to his own understanding. He is not necessarily conveying all nuances of what the hive said. The same episode, about ten minutes earlier, confirmed that the hive chooses their words very carefully and diplomatically in order to mislead the humans, so when Koumba relays the revelation about stem cells, the viewer is already primed to suspect that it might have hidden caveats that Koumba has missed.
Koumba: It seems the only way to make their virus work on us is by tailoring it to our individual stem cells. But to obtain those stem cells, they must first collect them from our bodies. Apparently that involves sticking a large needle into the bone of the hip. Somewhat painful. And very invasive. Something they cannot do without our permission. They made this discovery only yesterday. They are not pleased about it, I can assure you.
Next, Carol talks to the hive:
Carol: Is it true that you need our stem cells to turn us into you? And furthermore, is it true that you need our express permission to collect those stem cells?
Hive: THAT IS CORRECT, CAROL. ON BOTH COUNTS.
Carol: I am officially going on record that I do not consent. You will not lay a finger on me. Repeat that back.
Hive: WE HEAR YOU, CAROL. YOU DO NOT CONSENT. NO STEM CELLS WILL BE COLLECTED FROM YOUR BODY. YOUR WISHES WILL BE RESPECTED.
That was all in episode six. Fast forward to episode nine, the finale.
Carol: You're not talking about the joining, are you? That's not even… You told me that you needed my stem cells. What, did that change?
Zosia: No. That's right.
Carol: So without my stem cells, you can't convert me.
Zosia: Mm-hm.
Carol: And if I don't expressly give you my consent to jam a giant needle in my ass, then you can't take them, and I stay me. Right?
Zosia: (stammering) Th-that would be correct.
Carol: "Would be". There's no other way to get my stem cells, is there? (pause) Hm. If there wasn't, you'd say so. So there is a way. (realization hits) My eggs. The ones I froze with Helen. You have them, don't you?
Zosia: We do.
Carol: And you can make those into stem cells, can't you?
Zosia: It takes time and patience, plus a bit of luck.
Carol: But you're working on it.
Zosia: We are. You have to understand how beautiful it is, Carol. You'll see why we have to share it. As happy as you've been, that's only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, Kusimayu. You remember the young Peruvian girl? She just joined us. And I promise you, she's happier than she's ever been. You can hear that straight from her if you like.
Carol: How long do I have?
Zosia: Induced pluripotent stem cells can be very fragile, and we're dealing with haploid--
Carol: How long?
Zosia: A month. Hopefully no more than two or three.
Carol: If you loved me, you wouldn't do this.
Zosia: Carol. Please understand we have to do this because we love you. Because I love you. Carol…
These are the only two scenes in the season in which stem cells are discussed.
As we learn from episode 9, the initial information from episode 6 was incomplete and misleading. The hive confirms Carol's statements to be accurate: they need the survivors' stem cells to turn them, and they can't collect stem cells without the survivors' permission. However, Koumba's retelling has another important statement: "to obtain those stem cells, they must first collect them from our bodies". And that the hive does not confirm. That's likely Koumba's own inference, filling in a missing step in a way that the hive probably didn't mention on purpose. Because, as Zosia confirms in the finale, the hive does not, in fact, need to collect stem cells directly from the survivors' bodies in order to obtain them. This also implies that all the other survivors are in danger of being converted without their consent, if the hive has or had the opportunity to obtain some of their cells that could be turned into stem cells.
The terms
Before we talk about the dialogue from episode 9, let's review the relevant terms (specifically in relation to humans). I'll try to summarize what I know as simply as possible while staying accurate.
Stem cells that are derived from eggs are called embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Eggs (and sperm) are haploid, i. e. contain only one set of chromosomes, as opposed to the two sets found in the somatic cells (most other cells in the body). Embryonic stem cells are collected from an embryo that's a few days old. The destruction of a viable human embryo raises ethical issues, which motivates development and usage of alternative technologies. It is possible to use an egg cell to produce a parthenogenetic embryo, which contains only the maternal genome and is not viable. The resulting stem cells tend to have two sets of chromosomes, but it's possible to cultivate haploid cell lines with extra effort.
Embryonic stem cells need alternatives not only for ethical but also for practical reasons. Obviously, not every person can produce eggs, and even for those who do, these eggs are in precious short supply and difficult to retrieve. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be generated directly from any person's somatic cells taken from various parts of the body. With this method, the patient's sex is irrelevant, the cells can be collected in large quantities and in a relatively or completely non-invasive way, and embryos aren't involved.
Another way of creating stem cells from somatic cells is somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), in which the nucleus from the patient's somatic cell is transplanted into someone else's egg cell. Nothing that matches this description has been mentioned on the show so far, so this is probably the least relevant one on the list.
Zosia's line
Now let's go back to Pluribus, and specifically, to the one line where Zosia actually uses the scientific terminology. Here's the line again: "Induced pluripotent stem cells can be very fragile, and we're dealing with haploid--"
This is the line that immediately made me pause the episode. As far as I know, iPSCs aren't made from eggs, in fact, avoiding the limitations of eggs is part of the point. I tried to google the combination of relevant terms, but couldn't find anything, though maybe it's just my problem. And the word "haploid" also reinforces that they're still talking about the eggs, just in case you wondered if the topic randomly shifted to some previously unmentioned somatic cells for some reason.
Why does this line mention iPSCs, then? Why mention such a specific term? Here are some options:
This is just fluff, technobabble. The writers picked the first stem cell-related terms they could find and sprinkled them onto the dialogue to make it sound more impressive.
Same as above, but with a thematic flavor: the writers wanted the hive to say the word "pluripotent" because it sounds like the title of the show.
I'm wrong and iPSCs do get made from gametes even irl, I'm just bad at looking it up.
I'm half wrong, and the hive used this technology on Carol's eggs regardless of whether that's done irl or not.
The hive actually means something else, for example "…iPSCs can be very fragile, so we're not using them, and instead are…"
The hive is simultaneously producing ESCs from Carol's eggs and iPSCs from her other cells (more on that later).
The writers are shoehorning the mention of iPSCs into the line as foreshadowing because it's relevant not to Carol but to the other survivors (more on that later).
Haploid stem cells
Let's now step back and talk about this: what exactly is the hive doing with these eggs and the cells derived from them? They're haploid, as Zosia conveniently reminds us. They have only half of Carol's genome. About as useful as a close relative. They could easily get her whole genome from any somatic cell; why not use a somatic cell and reprogram it into a stem cell (iPSC), or why not use a somatic cell and transfer its nucleus into Carol's own egg, or maybe literally anyone else's (SCNT)? I mean, in terms of the in-universe motivations, not on the Doylist level of "we wanted to write a dramatic story about a woman's reproductive function being exploited".
One possible answer could be that in this case, being haploid might actually be useful. (Shout out to a couple of redditors whose posts pointed me in this direction.) I'll quote a recent (2024) overview of haploid stem cells that explains it in a simple way:
For gene research, diploidy is a great obstacle, due to the fact the phenotype of recessive genes is difficult to be reflected in heterozygotes. Therefore, for haploid cells, the characteristic that their genotypes are equal to their phenotypes gives them a unique advantage in gene research and drug screening.
Research of the survivors' recessive genes sounds exactly what the hive might be doing if the survivors' "immunity" is caused by some kind of random mutation that might be unique to each of them. At least that's my thinking as a non-biologist, and since the writers are non-biologists too, they might follow the same logic.
Human haploid stem cells are relatively new compared to some other technologies I talk about here; the first publication about them was in 2016. Since then they have been used for research of, for example, anticancer drug resistance and virus-host interactions for COVID, which to me sounds similar to what the hive might be looking into.
Haploid stem cells can be derived from eggs without fertilization, which also sounds exactly like Carol's case (the hive wouldn't want some other guy's DNA mixed in there, and they certainly would prefer not to create and destroy a viable embryo).
Now, I have to admit. The phrasing "we're dealing with haploid" implies that the hive isn't happy about it. Maybe they're saying "It's too bad we only have half of your genome". But maybe they're saying "It's hard to keep these cell lines haploid". Or maybe, and even most likely, the writers didn't mean anything by it other than filling the air with technical terms that Carol could interrupt with an emotional demand for a simple explanation. This is really a "It's not that deep? I'll start digging anyway" situation.
Induced pluripotent stem cells
Alright, so we've talked about Carol. What about the other survivors? The reveal was all about eggs, so as long as the other survivors don't have any eggs frozen, are they safe?
Well, maybe the term "induced pluripotent stem cells" was mentioned for a reason. Because there's something you're likely to encounter as soon as you look it up, whether you're a writer looking to spruce up your sci-fi story, or a fan of that sci-fi story who didn't understand wtf was that word you just heard. It's on the Wikipedia article literally called "Induced pluripotent stem cell", under the first header to contain the word "human":
Obtaining fibroblasts to produce iPSCs involves a skin biopsy, and there has been a push towards identifying cell types that are more easily accessible. In 2008, iPSCs were derived from human keratinocytes, which could be obtained from a single hair pluck. In 2010, iPSCs were derived from peripheral blood cells, and in 2012, iPSCs were made from renal epithelial cells in the urine.
So. I'm raising the possibility that by mentioning this term, the writers tell us that they know what it means and don't mind some of us knowing or learning it too. And if iPSCs exist in the world of Pluribus and work the same way that a quick glance at Wikipedia tells us they do irl, that has certain implications for the plot and the fates of other characters.
Hair, blood, or urine are probably not difficult to obtain if you live with someone. And all of them are especially easy to obtain when you run a hospital and take care of someone bleeding and unconscious for 12 days.
Many people asked whether the hive could have gotten the stem cells from Manousos's bone marrow. There are several reasons for a negative answer: it would probably be inadvisable for a patient on the brink of death, it would have been discovered and shown to the viewer already, the procedure is not on the hospital bill. However, whether the hive performed that invasive procedure or not, they likely have enough material to convert Manousos even without it.
Episode 8 opens with a shot of Manousos's blood dripping on the floor freely; a few second later, there's a shot of his bleeding burns. A bit later, the camera gives the viewer a good look at the itemized hospital bill that confirms the common-sense assumption that the hive ran blood and urine tests on him. (Here's a translation of the bill into English.)
This conveniently open-access article explains one of the methods of making stem cells from human blood in great detail. The amount needed is specified as "2–4 mL of human venous blood". The hive canonically did blood tests on Manousos, and could easily draw that little extra. I assume they could also just use the blood freely flowing from his wounds. The reprogramming process described in the article takes around 20 days.
This means that if I'm right, the writers did the bare minimum research, and the opening scene of episode 8 is a Chekhov's gun and not a red herring — then the hive probably already has Manousos's stem cells by the end of season 1.
There's just too much evidence pointing towards it, both in terms of real life science and narrative logic. When the protagonist's storyline involved the antagonist gaining access to the products of her body without her knowledge and consent, and the supporting character who mirrors her in everything ends up in a hospital bleeding non-stop at the same antagonist's mercy… When the tragic irony of his journey is that his hubristic attempt at independence, dignity, safe distance from the hive was the exact thing that landed him in their clutches, fully physically dependent on them and unable to defend himself… I love Manousos so I hate to say it, but I'm sorry, his storyline will be stronger and will make more sense both logically and thematically if the hive really did steal his blood while he was in the hospital.
I'm focusing on the blood because it's the most cinematic and is supported by the show's imagery, but in terms of science, there are other options. Urine obviously would have been trivial to obtain even without the excuse of testing. And as the scientist on Reddit points out, cleaning the wounds would provide the hive with fibroblasts. (*Zosia voice* Fun fact: fibroblasts were the first type of cell that got transformed into iPSCs in the groundbreaking 2006 study on mouse cells that eventually won one of its authors a Nobel Prize, as well as in its successor next year that adapted the same method to human cells.) As for hair, I assume the hive wouldn't pluck it, but there should be some of it falling out naturally in the span of two weeks, though I'm not sure if that's still good enough for reprogramming or not. In any case, the hive should have their hands full if they know what's good for them.
The other survivors
What about the other survivors?
If Carol's stem cells get made from eggs and Manousos's get made from blood, it would make poetic sense for Koumba's to be made from his sperm. Yes, yes, everyone and their mom has suggested that already, I know. If so many of us thought about it, I assume at least someone in the writers' room did too. The eggs reveal was also predicted by many. As for the scientific side, it is possible irl to produce embryonic stem cells that contain only the genome from the sperm (see the article linked above). So if the hive thinks 50% is good enough to turn Carol, it should be the same for Koumba. And, of course, they can always steal his hair or urine and obtain stem cells with his full genome.
As for all the other survivors — I don't know. The writing has been so disinterested in them that it feels pointless to speculate. Maybe by the time the plot involves them again, half or all of them would be converted already. Or maybe the writers will decide to pleasantly surprise us and create a sick storyline for someone among them that is impossible to predict from where we're now. We'll wait and see.
Why the eggs?
So why doesn't the hive just make iPSCs from Carol's hair or urine? What justifies the decision to use the eggs, which makes for a more emotionally and thematically impactful story, but seems much less practical in-universe?
Here are the possible explanations I could come up with:
The hive's interpretation of "collecting stem cells from Carol's body" also includes collecting any cells for the purpose of turning them into stem cells. The already harvested eggs are okay, but any new cells are off-limits. Carol specifically says "You will not lay a finger on me", and the hive responds "Your wishes will be respected", which supports this broader interpretation of their promise.
While the hive was making these promises, they have probably already gotten their hands on Carol's eggs. That was during her isolation period; by the next time the hive met her in person, and therefore had the opportunity to collect any new cells from her, more than a month has passed, and the hive probably already had the embryonic stem cells produced from her eggs. Before Carol's "time-out", the hive didn't know they would need to collect biological samples from her, and after the "time-out", they didn't need it any more. Maybe the hive "wanted to come back" and was "looking for a change of heart", as Koumba told Carol at the end of episode 6, because they suddenly had a reason to want to get close to her and collect the cells with her full genome.
As we know, the hive hides from Carol that they're working on turning her (because she would try to stop them, because it would upset her, because it would damage the relationship between them, etc.) Perhaps Zosia failed to collect Carol's samples in secret, or perhaps she even decided not to risk it, since the hive already had Carol's eggs anyway.
Or perhaps Zosia did collect hair from Carol's hairbrush or something, and maybe that was the reason she mentioned iPSCs in the finale — but the narrative focused on the eggs because, on the Doylist level, it's more dramatic, and on the Watsonian level, that part of the hive's research was further along.
Maybe the haploid stem cells are better suited to the hive's purposes than the regular ones (no matter whether that's realistic or not).
tl;dr
I think the hive gets the stem cells in whichever way they can do as soon as possible. Kusimayu consented to the bone marrow probe, so they collected her stem cells from the bone marrow and could then proceed directly to the step of modifying the virus. Carol was physically unavailable but also had eggs frozen, so they retrieved the eggs and derived stem cells from them. Manousos conveniently almost died right around the time the hive made the stem cell discovery, so they had the opportunity to collect whatever and however much they needed and could gather non-invasively from him over the twelve days he spent unconscious in their custody, and then they presumably proceeded to make stem cells from that. All the other survivors who live close to the hive probably also already have their stem cells being worked on. Nobody is safe. That is, if the writers at least skimmed the Wikipedia article for a suspiciously specific term they used in the show's dialogue. And if they didn't — well, they should have.
Found a high-resolution screenshot of Manousos’s machete that allows us to see it up closer, so I thought finding the particular model that was used could bring some interesting information.
Machetes are primarily a tool used in tropical and subtropical countries for agricultural tasks, clearing a path through vegetation and various types of outdoors labour. They are pretty versatile and there exists lots of different types, with different names and different shapes of blades for different purposes : Cutting cane, chopping wood, cutting meat, survival, etc...
Looking at the shape of the blade, the brand inscription on it and the rounded pommel, it looks like a Tramontina bush machete, used for bush clearing, fieldwork, and agricultural tasks. It's a budget option of okay enough quality, economical and easily accessible.
Neat detail : In the close-up below, we can also see some cord around the wooden handle, because as the grip on this brand can be rather uncomfortable, people often sand it down or wrap rope around it.
Its blade is made of carbon steel, which rusts easily but is highly durable. But interestingly, the one used in the show looks very used ! We can see lots of dents and scratches here and there, which really surprised me : This tool is commonly used in rural areas, and is associated with the working class and physical labour, so why would a self-storage manager living in the capital and working behind a desk with a HAM radio have one in such a state ? If it had been rarely used, the creators would’ve left the blade without a scratch. But these marks tell us this machete has a history. In comparison, this heavily used 14 years old Tramontina machette looks almost new.
Although Manousos last kept it under the bed's mattress at his house, he could’ve been using it at his storage office, which looks set in an environment with more vegetation. However, the barbed wire surrounding the whole place’s gonna make it tough to do some gardening...
In conclusion, I’m still unsure of what to make from this. Did his past at some point involve lots of outdoors labour ? This would colour in a different light his lines about everything having a cost and his concern of paying the people who used to work at the hospital before the Joining.
Or maybe his machete used to belong to someone else ? Could it have something to do with the reasons so many of the objects he owns are so old? (1975 Seiko Chariot watch. Kenwood TS-940S HAM radio manufactured between 1985 and 1992. MG produced from 1961 to 1979.) Could these possessions have belonged to his parents? Maybe his father, who seems to have passed away and whose picture he has framed in his house ?
Rouxls Kaard is such a strange and unusual character to me. I feel like there’s so much there to unpack. why is he the only character with a canonically flat ass. why does he keep showing up despite not having an obvious importance yet. why is he in universe justified the only one with the ability to ACT lock us. and that’s not even his Ultimate Powere, of which we have not seen. what is his Card Kingdom history. why does he have aura among the citizens of the first Dark World. what is his obsession with serving evil rulers. why is he evil for the love of the game. why is he both unrecruitable and unkillable. why does he not gaf about the Lightners. why does his teleport bear visual and audible similarity to the opening of a dark fountain. why is he so similar to Papyrus. why were his hands in the dialogue box. what narrative purpose could this all POSSIBLY be leading to??? I mean I have thoughts but I’m curious if anyone else does too
You can control how fast Kris, Susie, and Ralsei rise from the stage before the Rock Video minigame starts. The up, cancel, and menu buttons make them rise faster, while the down and confirm buttons make them rise slower.
Lowkey a metaphor for the Angel's/Player's control only being an influence to make us feel involved but otherwise unable to halt the movement/action completely.
"Lost where the forest would grow, the children followed the pointed tail."
Wondering why there are so many arrows on the roof of the « final » Jackenstein house. Though fewer, they’re also present in the first house. Is it because the SOUL is lost in a maze ?
For some reason the pipe organ and golden piano in the Dark Sanctuary also have arrows, while the normal ones don't. (Let’s note that the NPC that tells us about the pointed tale is an Organikk, a Darkner based on the church organ, and that he mentions it near the ROOTS Prophecy showing a house.)
And in the photo of the tropical island shown before board 2, the floating ATLANTIS STADIUM on the horizon is enveloped by a mysterious black entity with two arrow-like shapes on its right.
Could this be a pattern ?
After the recent chapters, even Castle Town's many towers and curvy narrow pointy houses begin to look like arrows… But what could the pointed tail be possibly be doing there ?
Some other arrows linked to Dark-World architecture, specifically in ones belonging to Royal Darkners :
The entrance to Queen's Mansion is also surrounded by arrow-towers, also included in the unused version. Since this is Cyber World, they could represent computer mouse cursors.
There arrow-towers are also present in Card Castle, maybe because they go with the "spear" theme of the Spade suit. It's also notable that arrow-shapes are used in every representation of Castle Town, even the Angel Prophecy placeholder.
Dr. Andonuts (Earthbound).
Dr. Handonuts.
Dr. HAND DOUGHNUTS.
Dr. Gaster/Mysteryman has holes in his hands.
They are literally hand-doughnuts.
I am done.
Undertale Science: Very funny. You know, I always wondered if those black pixels were holes or simply supposed to be openings of his hands, I can’t find any evidence of that being done for any other sprite though, The holes in the sprite are 1x2 black pixels at the top of his right hand, and side of his left hand. When startled or whatever his other sprite with the open mouth and pupils and open eyes is supposed to be, the holes become 2x2 black pixels. His head goes up a bit and the white triangle under his head has a black horizontal sliver ton it. When you are working with two small pixel sprites, both facing forward, in black and white, it’s hard to know what is what. For all we know it could be another illusion trick like with Shyren.
